Money

3 Reasons Why Budgeting Sucks

It is said that about 70% of lottery jackpot winners lose everything within two or three years and yet the vast majority of those with money problems are under the false impression that what they need to fix those problems, is more money.

The truth of course, is that if you don’t know how to manage the money you have, getting more is only going to result in you wasting more of it.

Everyone understands this and yet most people don’t have a system for managing the money they make.

I think part of the reason is that traditional budgeting just sucks.

It’s not flexible or realistic. It forces you to create a neat little plan that rarely works out as written. Why does it rarely work? Because life isn’t neat or predictable.

It makes you feel guilty. When things don’t go as planned–which is inevitable–you feel like crap for failing at budgeting. Oh well, better luck next month!

It makes you feel poor. For those of us who don’t like to feel so restricted, traditional budgeting can be painful.

This article and the accompanying spreadsheet, will provide you with an alternative way to manage your expenses that isn’t painful.

It will show you an approach to budgeting that is flexible, realistic, fun, effective, and that doesn’t require you to become a boring, miserable penny pincher. Continue reading →

The envelope budgeting system most people are used to using makes you write down your monthly income and then list out all of your spending categories and what you spend on each one, per month. It also makes most people hate budgeting, and for good reason.

Here are some of my main problems with that system…

Who in the world spends on a monthly basis?

Do you get paid monthly? Do you do monthly groceries? Most of us get paid semi-monthly or bi-weekly, we may do groceries once a week, and have random one-off expenses here and there. A system that forces you to think in terms of monthly spending just isn’t natural.

I’m a huge Tony Robbins fan. If you haven’t read Awaken the Giant Within, I urge you to make it a priority to read that book. If you’re familiar with Tony’s teachings you know and understand that more often than not we are our biggest obstacle.

Tony gives the example of people who are unlucky enough to be born into terrible environments and yet still manage to rise up and succeed, while so many others spend their lives blaming those environments for their lack of success. His point being that if our environment, whatever that is comprised of, is what determines whether or not we succeed, we wouldn’t be able to find examples of those who have overcome great challenges. Continue reading →